Our team has been working at senior levels for over twenty years to deliver quality market and social research solutions. We know how to gain access to the views of our clients' communities and allow their voices to inform decision-making. We understand the importance of providing research approaches and solutions to suit each individual organisation and the audiences they serve and we work closely with our clients to develop the best outcome.

Rachel Lopata

Rachel has over 20 years of varied experience in market and social research. She has extensive quantitative and qualitative research experience, as well as a close working knowledge of deliberative research and engagement techniques. Prior to setting up Community Research, Rachel worked at Director level for ORC International and for Opinion Leader Research.

Rachel also spent six years at Leicester City Council where she took responsibility for the drafting and submission of the Council's Housing Investment Programme Strategy and Bid. Rachel developed her skills in stakeholder communication and partnership working, liaising across Council Departments and with external stakeholders form the statutory, private and voluntary sector as well as with tenant involvement bodies - consulting all of these communities on the City's Housing Strategy.

Over recent years Rachel has taken the lead role in developing, designing, managing and facilitating some of the most high profile deliberative research and consultation exercises ever seen in the UK, including the National Pensions Debate and The Prince of Wales' Business Summit on Climate Change.

She has worked on numerous consultations, large and small. She takes a special interest in local authority community engagement and empowerment work and has recently helped Leicestershire County Council to develop its approach to Participatory Budgeting.

She has written and co-authored numerous published research reports. Rachel is an affiliate member of the Market Research Society and an approved associate of The Consultation Institute (TCI). She holds an honours degree in English Literature from the University of Birmingham and has recently gained the TCI's certificate in professional development.

Rebecca Addis

Rebecca is a highly skilled researcher with diverse experience of managing projects on behalf of public and voluntary sector clients, having worked in the research industry for twenty years.

She worked as a director at Opinion Leader Research for nine years and led on health-related projects. This involved working for the Department of Health (DH) and at SHA and PCT level, in addition to work for a number of leading health charities. She has managed numerous consultations to inform policy development; including the development of a ‘patient experience statement' for the DH and a collaborative workshop to review elective surgery provision and government plans for expanding patient choice. She also headed up the NHS Next Stage Review engagement programme and the consultation relating to the DH New Deal for Carers.

Rebecca also has extensive experience of qualitative and deliberative methodologies, including research with young people, elderly people and people with disabilities.

Prior to joining Opinion Leader, Rebecca worked at ORC International, where she was Associate Director of the Public Sector division. Clients included organisations from a number of sectors, such as Central Government, Housing, Local Authority and Education. Projects tended to fall into four categories - customer or tenant satisfaction, patient satisfaction, policy research and employee satisfaction.

Lucy Brady

Lucy has nine years' market and social research experience across a range of private, public and third  sector clients both in the UK and abroad.

Most recently she looked after research and evaluation for Change4Life, the national public health programme, commissioning agencies for creative development research, brand tracking and behaviour change evaluation. Prior to this, she worked at Opinion Leader on a range of qualitative, quantitative and deliberative projects for a variety of clients including Ofcom, Defra, the Natural History Museum and Sainsbury's. Lucy has also worked in the specialist qualitative group at TNS Australia and at First Movies, a research agency focussing on film research. She has engaged with a range of different audiences from opinion leaders to asylum seekers to teenage mothers.

Lucy has an MA in Japanese from Oxford University and a post graduate certificate from Birkbeck University in Ethnicity, Migration, Policy.